Squad Busters
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 When you though that this game would be fun to squad with, it is just a major slap in the face when it was released.
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Squad Busters is an online mobile action game developed and published by the Finnish video game company Supercell. The game was released globally on 29 May 2024 for the Android and iOS platforms.
Development and release
The video game was announced on January 31, 2023, and then had a limited release in beta version on February 6 of the same year only for Canada and then ended on February 16. Subsequently, in May 2023 another limited beta (Android only) was announced which lasted from May 22 until May 29 available only in Canada, Mexico and Spain.
Almost a year after the last beta, on April 1, 2024, "many exciting new features" were announced for the future of the game. Subsequently, on April 8 of the same year it was announced that the game will be available in soft launch from April 23 in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Singapore.
On April 25, 2024, it was revealed that the video game will be released globally on May 29 of the same year.
In the video game there are 27 characters from other Supercell products, 10 from Clash Royale/Clash of Clans, 11 from Brawl Stars, 2 from Hay Day, 3 from Boom Beach and 1 from Hay Day Pop.
Gameplay
It is a casual strategy you to purchase chests with which you can get new characters to join your squad. Gems allow you to rank in the game, since the player with the most gems when time ends wins.
In the video game there are a total of 44 monsters, 26 modifiers and 16 different spells; the modifiers are chosen randomly at the start of the game, while the spells can be unlocked as you progress through the game. A match consists of collecting as many gems as possible in a 10-player online match which can be obtained by defeating monsters, cutting down trees, searching bushes, destroying crates, obtaining coins and defeating enemies if you have more.
At the start of the game you are asked to choose between 3 random characters in your possession and to obtain other characters during the course of the match it is necessary to collect coins which can be found in the same way as gems. When the necessary coins have been obtained the player can approach one chest that requires a specific number of coins, which increases based on how many characters you have at the time, to again choose 1 of 3 random characters. Although very rarely, it is possible to find "mega" characters in chests, that is, much more powerful than normal characters. However, they are consumables, so using them will result in the use of mega units. You can get more mega units from the pass or in-app purchases.
In the game the characters in your possession are in a group that is moved by the player all together, around the group there is an "attack area" in which if the group is stationary and in the area there is an object, a monster or an enemy, will be attacked by the party. If three identical characters are chosen, they merge into one larger character.
Bad Qualities
- For starter, the gameplay is extremely repetitive and is a severe downgrade from that of Brawl Stars, since here it is almost comparable to an 1990s Arcade game but with it being even more simplified, the reasons of why the gameplay is so bad is:
- You just had to run on an enemy or an opponent and wait that your characters kill them or at least waiting just to see if it's you or them that kill the first, this quickly became annoying and repetitive.
- Not to mention that the gems system here is very poorly executed, since you need to get the most of them but the problem is that it is way too hard to get them due to either your opponents go away from fighting you or because of the fact that it is hard to find them, thus making the gameplay even worse, and this also make the game very frustrating (see BQ#6).
- Another reason of why the game is bad is because of the fact that due to how poor the gameplay is, it is incredibly boring, and it is even to the point that you might just want to stop playing it before even playing it for one hour, and considering that there isn't any variaty, then it make this much worse.
- Unlike Brawl Stars where there is a ton of modes to play, here there isn't any different modes and is just the same thing over and over, which is also the biggest problem of the game and the main reason of why it is incredibly boring and mediocre at best.
- Not to mention that due to this, the game feel like a beta game and also feel like it wasn't finished, and while Brawl Stars wasn't really that great in the day it was lauched, at least it had more things to do than the lauch of this game and improved itself with the years to come, and even do the best for that the game became even better.
- There is also a missed oportunity for the game to had another mode, such as the Squad Adventure thing that sound like it coule have been a story mode that would probably make it having something better than in Brawl Stars but no, instead it is just a place where you see your rewards, this is also dissapointing.
- The game is completely luck-based, since for a lot of times, when you are 1st, it is mostly because of the lucks, and getting 1st or even in the top 3 is incredibly hard due to how random the game is, meaning that you might had bad luck for 80% of the times, this is also even worse than in Brawl Stars where in that game, sometime it is luck-based but not to this extend since that game still relies more on skill, but here even with skill you might get a lot of trouble being un 1st due to how luck-based it is.
- The microtransations are at their worst and is absolutely ridiculous, since if you want to pay for the game pass, then you need to buy 2 pass for a same season, which is extremely stupid and is probably the worst that Supercell ever done.
- In fact it is so bad that it make Brawl Stars and Clash Royale microtransations a run for their money, because despite their huge microtransations, it wasn't to this extend.
- The soundtrack is very bland and forgettable, in fact you might even forgot that the music was playing all along, much like M&M's Adventure.
- This game also feel like a big cash grab on multiplie Supercell games, such as Brawl Stars, Clash Royale and Clash of Clans, which also feel forced and despite having multiple characters from these games, it doesn't feel like a proper crossover.
- Downright awful combat that is one of the absolute worst to come out in a mobile online game, due to just being luck-based and that you doesn't actually play but instead you just watch your characters doing attacks until the enemies or other players die, which became incredibly annoying, tedious and boring.
- The commercial is misleading since when you look at it, it look like that it going to be like Brawl Stars (albeit different), but instead it is just a MOBA game and not a good one at that.
- The characters designs are a massive downgrade from their respective games, since they try way too hard to look cute but fail, with some of them looking like reject from other games, such as one character from Clash Royale that look like a reject from the Super Monkey Ball series, in fact they look like they come from a Nintendo 3DS games.
- Overall, this was a massive dissapointement considering that this game was long awaited before being released and being considered as a bad game, this is even to the point that some consider it one of, if not the worst game Supercell ever produced.
Good Qualities
- The game actually had a much better optimisation than Brawl Stars, since it doesn't require as many connexion than the former, which is neat, especially if you doesn't had a great wifi.
- Despite the awful characters models, the graphics are great to look at, as they are very colorful, they also are the best part of the game too.
- Once again, the voice acting is really good.
- The game can be fun to play at times.
- The artworks are really good to look at, and feature better characters designs than in the actual game.
Reception
While Squad Buster received mixed to positive reviews by critics, it was a heavy dissapointement for the players and received mixed to negative reviews by gamers, it was criticized for it's gameplay, microtransations and lack of contents, in fact this game reception is so bad that some even consider this game to be the worst game Supercell ever released.
After not too long after the game was lauched, the game quickly losed it's popularity and players did playing Brawl Stars instead, due to it being a much better game.
Trivia
- The game was playable in 2023 in a beta version, much like Brawl Stars.